The True BA 100K Offer – The One That Started It All – Is Back

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A dozen years ago Chase came out with a 100,000 point offer for their British Airways credit card. (The British Airways currency wasn’t called Avios then.) It was revolutionary and frequent flyers rushed to become British Airways Executive Club members and cardholders.

In recent years Chase has requested hefty spending to earn 100,000 Avios on the card, such as $20,000 in spend. Some members wanted to do this, since they were going to keep spending to earn a ‘Travel Together’ ticket that let them get a second award ticket on the same itinerary without spending additional miles. But it was a lot of spend. Now that’s changed.

Well, it’s exciting to see the British Airways Visa Signature® Card back with an initial bonus offer to earn 100,000 Avios – with much more reasonable requirements. You earn this bonus after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.

The reason some people spend on the card is because every calendar year you make $30,000 in purchases on your British Airways Visa card, you’ll earn a Travel Together Ticket good for two years. However I don’t otherwise love it for spending,

  • 5 Avios per dollar spent on purchases with British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia within your first 18 months from account opening, thereafter earn 3 Avios.
  • 3 Avios per dollar spent on hotel accommodations when purchased directly with the hotel within your first 18 months from account opening, thereafter earn 2 Avios.
  • 1 Avios per dollar spent on all other purchases

One nice feature of the card, though, is 10% off British Airways flights ticketed through the cardmember booking website.

Another nice thing is that Chase issues not just the British Airways card but also sister Aer Lingus and Iberia products and they each have similar bonus offers.

Active Avios accounts can transfer points between them, so it’s possible to pool points across the Iberia, British Airways and Aer Lingus programs. Of course like all Chase cards you generally will only be approved if you’ve had fewer than 5 new cards in the past 24 months (“5/24”).

British Airways Visa Signature® Card

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Editorial note: any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Comments made in response to this post are not provided or commissioned nor have they been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any bank. It is not the responsibility of advertisers Citibank, Chase, American Express, Barclays, Capital One or any other advertiser to ensure that questions are answered, either. Terms and limitations apply to all offers.

Comments

  1. I already have a BA/Chase card. Does one have to be a new member to receive these perks?

  2. No, NOT the same offer!
    The original BA card needed only $3,000 minimum spend.

  3. Can you sign up for all 3 if and get 300k avios if you qualify under the 5/24 rule?

  4. @Jimmy having one of these cards doesn’t preclude getting another, but you wouldn’t be able to do it all at the same time

Comments are closed.